X.] WINDS. 195
of the four additional winds, but we have clear proof of it in the
sculptured figures which are still to be seen on the ancient monu-
ment which throws the greatest light on this subject—the Horo-
logium of Antonius Cyrrhestes, or, as it is popularly called, the
'Temple of the Winds,' at Athens. This is a low
'„„„., „ 'Temple of
octagonal tower, on each of the eight walls of the winds'at
which there is a bas-relief, representing the wind Athens<
that blew from the direction towards which it faces, and these
correspond to the eight winds which Aristotle first enumerates.
An additional element of interest is supplied by the dress and
accompaniments of these figures, by which the character attributed
by the Greeks to the winds which they represent is described.
Boreas, for instance, is depicted as a bearded man of stern aspect,
thickly clad and wearing strong buskins, and he blows a conch
shell as a sign of his tempestuous character. Caecias, another
cold and inclement wind, carries a shield, the lower part of which
is full of hailstones. Notus, the most rainy wind, holds an inverted
urn, the whole contents of which he is pouring out upon the earth.
Zephyrus, on the other hand, who is the harbinger of spring, appears
as a graceful youth, almost unclothed, with the fold of his robe
filled with flowers. In addition to these winds, which determined,
or were determined by, the quarters of the heavens,
Aristotle notices the periodical winds that prevail in
the Aegean—the Ornithiae or Bird-winds (so called
because they brought the birds of passage), which blew in the
springtime from the north, and the Etesian winds also from the
same direction1. Owing to his remembrance of the latter of these,
Megasthenes, in his account of India and its rainy season, applies
the name of Etesian winds to the south-west monsoon2.
In every country the rivers are the chief element of movement,
and for this reason they resemble a living agency
more than any other natural feature. The changes
which they are continually producing on the face of the earth are
everywhere apparent, and human life has at all times been largely
dependent upon them, whether as an aid to the cultivation of the
soil, or as a means of transit from place to place, or as furnishing
1 Ar., Meteorol^ 2, 5. 7, 9.
9 Strabo, 15. j. 13.
13—2